Apologies for the extremely late response, but it would appear that walt.farrel's solution did fix my problem. However, this exact same bug came back with version 2.0.3. This time I managed to fix the error by clearing the "Open Recent" menu.
What is your operating system and version (Windows 11, OSX Ventura, iOS 16 etc)?
macOS Ventura 13.1
Is hardware acceleration (in Preferences > Performance) ON or OFF ? (and have you tried the other setting?)
Yes
What happened for you (and what you expected to happen)
Expected app to open normally, either through clicking on app icon or through opening a .NEF file.
Provide a recipe for creating the problem (step-by-step what you did).
First connect to a SMB NAS on local network, then edit and save 1 or more files to said SMB NAS. Then disconnect Mac from that network, and then try to open Affinity Photos 2. It should freeze and you should receive a macOS system prompt saying it is unable to connect to NAS.
Any unusual hardware (like tablets or external monitors or drives that may affect things) or relevant other applications like font managers or display managers.
I use a SMB NAS at home, but edit off of an external SSD when I am not home.
Did this same thing used to work and if so have you changed anything recently? (software or hardware)
It worked for a while after I unchecked reopen last file on startup, then the same error popped up one day, presumably after 2.0.3 update.